Economic Analysis on Cover Crops in the Southern High Plains

Since 2005, the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) has worked directly with producers in over nine counties in the Southern High Plains to demonstrate technologies and management practices to support water conservation efforts.  There are over 30 demonstration sites that cover over 5,000 acres representing monoculture, multi-crop, and integrated crop-livestock systems.  Irrigation systems represented on the sites include furrow, Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA), Low Elevation Spray Application (LESA), Mid-Elevation Spray Application (MESA), Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI), and dryland.  Producers in the TAWC are provided with soil moisture probes to assist them with their irrigation requirements.

The objective of this project is to determine the economic benefits and costs associated with cover crops using TAWC data.  Budget data will be used from the TAWC for two sites within the project. A monoculture cotton system will be compared to a field that rotates cover crops. Both sites have similar water available and soil types.